ALONE IN THE IMAGINATION
February 10, 1996
By Mark Darrah
For many years, Art Robinson owned and operated a dozer service and built many ponds, miles of terraces and cleared acres of timber in Pawnee County and the surrounding area. He was an artist with a dozer and took jobs some thought were impossible just to prove they weren’t. He loved to hunt and a good laugh. In the last years of his life, he won the Wild West many times with Louis L’Amour and delighted in his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was honest, he worked hard, and he provided for his family.
Art Robinson loved to read. A member of the library board told us he had read every western the library had and had started to read them over. His last words, as far as anyone knows, were:
“If I couldn’t read, I’d just as soon die.”
He loved to read.
Yesterday, Jackie and I went to the nursing home where he spent his final days. On his bed was a large white plastic bag full of books–every one of them a western, a hundred, a hundred and fifty westerns. And, this was only a fraction of the books, the westerns, he had read.
Why did Art Robinson read all those westerns? Only he knows for sure, but I think maybe I know, too.
Virtually every one of those books has a hero. The names are different. Their backgrounds are different. They face different challenges and their skills are different but these western heros all share some common traits. I’ve made a list:
**They all tell the truth — regardless.
**They have an unbending sense of what is right and wrong.
**They win by hard work and smarts.
**They are as tough as armadillo hide.
**Nothing scares them. Nothing intimidates them.
**They can be onery and they like whiskey.
**They take on their jobs alone, regardless of the odds.
**And, they never give up.
Who does that remind you of?
Why did Art Robinson read all those westerns? Perhaps he did so that, if only in imagination, he wouldn’t be alone.
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